Friday, 14 November 2014

Polvo - Today's Active Lifestyles

Fun fact #1: Lazy Comet currently sits at no. 8 for my most played tracks on Last.fm
Fun fact #2: Thermal Treasure is also no. 11 on the same list
I love this album. A lot. In fact I've gone an entire week listening to this on repeat. It's. That. Good. And now I think you should listen to it.
For the uneducated, Polvo were a pioneering math rock band from North Carolina. In the early 90s they begun confusing the burgeoning post hardcore/indie scene with their drop tuned guitars (I'm fairly certain parts of this album are in drop B. DROP B) and weird time signatures - to the point where people thought their guitars weren't tuned they didn't know how to play their respective instruments. While they weren't as agressive as say, Drive Like Jehu or as blatantly experimental as Don Caballero, reality was Polvo's music was pretty straightforward by today's whacky, twinklenerd standards. Today's Active Lifestyles pretty much cements Polvo as one of my favourite 90s albums (sits just below Spiderland if you must know). It's 10 indie tinged post hardcore bangers complete with angular melodies, deadpan vocal delivery and incredibly catchy songwriting. It's not an overwhelmingly serious album, but it has it's heavier moments so you can listen to something reasonably lighthearted while keeping your emo cred.
I'm going to stop rambling on about this album, but you should probably go listen to it if you haven't already because it's good. I already mentioned that didn't I? Well it is, okay.